Business

Chinese solar company Trina Solar Limited got a $100 million dollar loan from Standard Chartered Bank, to be used for spreading out cell and module production capacity in their Changzhou facility to 500 megawatts. The loan was secured through the company’s subsidiary Trina Solar (Changzhou) Science & Technology Co. Ltd. Trina’s facilities in Changzhou, the Trina Solar PV Park, is where it conducts all research and development into making ingots, wafers, cells and modules.

Battery maker China Bak Battery, Inc. will provide storage for the first lithium-ion electric vehicle offering of Chinese state-owned car maker Chery Automobile Company. In a disclosed contract, China Bak said will supply 100 units of high-power lithium-ion batteries for Chery’s Ruilin M1 EV in the first half of the year. Deliveries start in June 2012.

American chemical company DuPont sealed strategic agreements with two solar power companies this month. DuPont announced a strategic agreement with the world’s largest producer of solar panels, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. The agreement will focus on technology advancements, supply chain optimization, cost reduction initiatives and supplying DuPont-based materials for Suntech Power modules.

Illinois-based Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc., a company in the business of auctioning off salvage vehicles, signed a deal with Chen Jia, Inc. in China where it could begin sending over vehicles for recycling following more lenient government rules. Through the deal, Insurance Auto will supply vehicles for to Chen Jia for the latter’s recycling operations.

Boston-based independent power producer Atlantic Power Corporation invested $23 million in Canadian Hills Wind, L.L.C., which owns a 298.45-megawatt wind farm in Oklahoma. Atlantic Power now owns 51 percent of Canadian Hills Wind. According to Atlantic Power, the Canadian Hills Wind project is in the late stages of development under builder Apex Wind Energy Holdings, L.L.C.

A Dresden-based company is covering several bases in the organic solar cell niche with which it hopes to make an impact in the building-integrated photovoltaics market – and beyond. The company specializes in organic solar cells, photovoltaic devices that use thin layers of organic materials with semiconductor properties. In December last year they achieved a conversion efficiency of 9.8 percent for their product, as confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.

Silicon Valley-based solar company SunPower Corporation has completed its acquisition of France-based developer and panel maker Tenesol, a wholly owned subsidiary of Total S.A. In a press release, SunPower said it acquired Tenesol for $165.4 million in cash. The deal’s completion this week followed the signing of a definitive agreement between the two companies in December regarding Tenesol’s acquisition.

Primoris Services Corp.’s Lake Forest, California-based Primoris Renewables has partnered with Dallas, Texas-based Synergy Renewables for waste-to-energy facilities in Puerto Rico, construction of which would begin this year with commercial operation targeted in the fourth quarter of 2013.

A high-level United Nations panel on global sustainability formed by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in its final report said “the world is still not on the path of sustainable development,” even though real progress has been made on some issues.

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